By Paul Teetor
When LeBron James walked into the Lakers locker room after the series-clinching game six victory over the Houston Rockets, he was greeted with a chorus of bleats and baaahs – the kind of sounds made by goats.
It was his teammates’ way of saying he is the the GOAT, the Greatest of All Time.
And this time the greatest of all time had done it again – led his team to a crucial playoff victory.
You don’t have to share the belief that LeBron is the GOAT – Michael Jordan is All Ball’s pick as the GOAT, with LeBron right behind him and closing fast. But there was no denying LeBron was brilliant on a night when, if the Lakers had lost it would have been devastating both to the team’s chances of advancing to the second round, and to LeBron’s legacy.
No way he wanted to be the leader of the first team in NBA history to squander a 3-0 series lead and lose a series 4-3 – which they were in danger of doing if they had lost Friday night’s game and allowed Houston to tie the series 3-3. There have been 159 teams that took a 3-0 series lead in the NBA playoffs, and not one of them had lost that series. Only four of them let it get to a seventh game, but all four of them won that seventh game.
Instead of possibly making some really bad history, he was the best player on the floor – for either team. He racked up 28 hard-earned points while inhaling 10 tough rebounds and dishing out 10 clever assists.
“It speaks to his greatness,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “To me, he’s had the greatest career of any NBA player.”
Well, now we know where Redick stands on the great GOAT debate. Can’t say it’s a surprise, since Redick and LeBron used to host a podcast together and Redick – a former NBA player who had never coached before — got his Lakers job because of an endorsement from LeBron.
When the Lakers went up 3-0 in their first round series with the Rockets, Redick warned that the Lakers would have to “kill” the Rockets to close out their series.
Redick proved to be prophetic. Their first two attempts to kill off the Rockets failed in games four and five. But on Friday night on the road in Houston, the Lakers finally accomplished their fatal goal, suffocating the Rockets’ offense so badly that it marked a permanent end of their season with a 98-78 victory in game six of the best-of-seven series.
Their reward: a second-round matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. No one is giving them a chance in hell of beating the defending champs led by the MVP-to-be, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But then again no one – including All Ball — gave them a shot at beating Houston after news broke that both Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves were out with injuries.
Doncic is still out, with no clear date for his return, but Reaves returned in game five with a get-the-rust-off 4-for-16 shooting performance, which contributed to the Lakers 99-93 loss.
But he was instrumental in finishing off the Rockets Friday night. He scored 15 points utilizing his trademark mad dashes to the hoop, acrobatic finishes and long-range bombs. He also had five rebounds and three blocks.
But it was on the other end of the court that the Lakers finally snuffed out the Rockets hopes of a historic comeback.
The Lakers, who aren’t known as a great defensive team, held the Rockets to fewer than 80 points for just the 10th time in a playoff game since 2000.
As for James, he wasn’t about to let the Lakers — or himself — make the wrong kind of history. He met the moment with the perfect combination of poise and ferocity, single-handedly outscoring the Rockets in the second quarter, 14-13.
The 41-year-old James led all scorers for the fourth time this series, finishing with 28 points.
It was the Lakers’ latest test amid a series of high hurdles that they’ve somehow overcome over the last month.
When the Lakers lost Luka and Austin Reaves with five games remaining in the regular season, no one thought they had any chance in the playoffs – no matter who they played in the first round. They were missing their two leading scorers – that’s right, LeBron averaged 22 points which made him third on the team — who left a 60-point offensive hole in their absence.
But the Lakers have learned they’re deeper than they thought.
James is still a superstar, ready and willing to be the first option. Luke Kennard’s talents extend far beyond the 3-point line. DeAndre Ayton is capable of playing with force when he wants to and is not whining that he isn’t getting the ball enough. Marcus Smart can look like the best defender in the league on any given night. Power forward Rui Hachimura has turned into a dead-eye shooter and his backup Jake LaRavia has proved capable of stepping up in big moments.
For the Lakers, cutting off their two biggest limbs made the rest of their body grow stronger.
It took a lot for this Lakers team to believe in itself. The negative noise was deafening.
“It felt bleak,” Redick said. “For us to be written off a few weeks ago and to then win a playoff series is a big deal. It speaks to the character of our team and the leaders of our team. They didn’t let go of the rope.”
Now the Lakers have to get ready for the Thunder, who have dominated the league for the last two seasons. I know, I know, it’s a crazy thought to think they could beat them.
But if Doncic returns some time later in the second round of the playoffs, his teammates will no longer feel as though they live or die by his 40-point scoring flurries.
Everyone in the rotation tapped into being the best version of themselves at various points this series.
There’s no denying the Lakers have an enormous challenge ahead of them. Their last two games against the Thunder were disastrous. There was a 43-point loss on April 2, followed by a 36-point loss on April 7.
But the Lakers are battle-tested now in a way they weren’t before.
They’ve gone through something. They survived. They persevered.
Reaves returned from a painful oblique injury in Game 5 after pouring himself into getting back onto the court. There were some days he left his house at 7:30 a.m. and didn’t return until 7:30 p.m. after seeking various treatments.
“Literally, I did literally everything we could possibly do to get myself back in this opportunity,” said Reaves, who had 15 points on 7-for-14 shooting.
As for Ayton, his maturity and professionalism were in question before he showed he can star in his role, including holding Alperen Sengun to 17 points on 5-for-12 shooting in Game 6.
Then there’s Kennard, who made people question whether he had been playing the wrong role his entire career after shining as a playmaker in the first two games of this series.
There are so many success stories this postseason on the Lakers’ roster. They overcame adversity together. That makes them dangerous.
They didn’t have a chance against the Rockets. Now they’re going to the Western Conference semifinals and again, conventional wisdom says they don’t have a chance.
But it would be foolish to count them out again before the first game is played.
Especially when they’re led by the GOAT.
As Redick entered the locker room after the final buzzer Friday night, he walked into a pitch-black environment and listened to the noise of goats fill the room — all in honor of James.
“Literally every single guy was going, ‘baahhhh,’” Redick said. “Baahhhhh.”
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
